Shovel Knight's fourth and final DLC is multiplayer brawler Showdown

Developer Yacht Club Games has revealed Showdown, the fourth and final DLC for its excellent 8-bit-inspired platformer Shovel Knight - and it's a 2D multiplayer brawler.

Showdown was originally mentioned back in 2013, as part of Shovel Knight's Kickstarter campaign. At the time, Yacht Club's fourth and final stretch goal was simply described as a "4 Player Battle Mode", but now we know more.

As has consistently been the case with Yacht Club's Shovel Knight post-base-game offerings, Showdown is gearing up to be considerably more involved than its early description might suggest. Showdown, it turns out, is a fully feature local multiplayer brawler, pitting four players against each other across a range of stages, and a variety of modes.

Yacht Club says the final game will feature over 16 characters - including Shovel Knight, The Temptress, and all of the Knights of the Order of No Quarter - and its modes will span furious free-for-alls and co-operative team battles against AI opponents or fellow humans.

Multiplayer modes include Gem Clash and Showdown, and these are joined by a practice mode and a multistage Story Mode specially customised for each hero. "Your chosen hero will face a rival, defeat scores of opponents, relax with a minigame or two," explains Yacht Club, "and hopefully see their tale completed after an all-new final encounter!".

Fight!

Shovel Knight: Showdown will be free to owners of the Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove bundle, and will also be available to purchase separately as a standalone game. There's no release date for Showdown yet, but Yacht Club has reiterated that it won't be coming to 3DS or Vita.

Rounding off its Showdown announcement, Yacht Club says that it will have news on the third of Shovel Knight's DLC offerings, King of Cards (described as "by far our biggest and most grandest single-player campaign yet"), this week. Details of long-awaited Treasure Trove amiibo 3-pack will also be revealed at the same time.

Matt Wales is a freelance writer and gambolling summer child who won't even pretend to live a busily impressive life of dynamic go-getting for the purposes of this bio. He is the sole and founding member of the Birdo for President of Everything Society.